5th post in a series on our journey to create ARAMARK Building Community, the company's signature community initiative to strength the capacity of the country's local community centers.

As word spread throughout the company about the ARAMARMK Building Community pilots locations, employees, from executives to hourly workers, became eager to participate.  Momentum was on our side.

However, before rolling out the initiative nationally, we needed to identify a few national partners with a local reach that could help us execute on a larger scale.  We needed partners with core competencies and experience in our social impact areas; the knowledge and access to the various independent community centers across the country; and a turnkey approach to conducting large-scale volunteerism events. We selected the following national partners.

• To help identify and forge partnerships with local community centers ARAMARK forged a multi-year partnership with Families International, Inc. (FI), which with its partner associations, the Alliance for Children and Families and the United Neighborhood Centers of America, Inc. (UNCA), forms the largest network of independent community centers in the United States. 

• To help organize and facilitate large-scale, high-impact events such as community center enhancement projects, ARAMARK partnered with City Year, one of the world's leading organizations in engaging citizens in community service. Together, ARAMARK and City Year's Care Force® division would apply their complementary expertise toward identifying pressing community center needs and designing meaningful experiences for ARAMARK employee volunteers. 

One of our final steps before going national was educating and equipping our ARAMARK Star Teams, groups of employees from all lines of business in a geographic region that help support community involvement at the local level.  Armed with learnings from the pilots, we created How-To Tool Kits and communications materials to provide guidance and to clearly articulate the initiative.  Our community relations team hosted our local engagement coordinators in Philadelphia for a two-day Community Involvement Summit, an introduction training session on how to develop relationships with their local community centers; recruit and motivate employee volunteers; coordinate and share all activities through a new online "portal;" and create impactful projects that utilize ARAMARK's strengths to serve the centers' members.  To demonstrate their support, ARAMARK's CEO and members of our management committee attended parts of this meeting.

In April 2008, we launched ARAMARK Building Community nationally, with an announcement that over the subsequent three years, ARAMARK would dedicate more than $5 million in cash grants, volunteer hours, and product donations toward improving neighborhood centers in at least 30 markets throughout the United States.

Within its first year, ARAMARK Building Community began to meet short-term business and social objectives.   The initiative brought together more than 3,000 ARAMARK employees through more than 20 ARAMARK Building Community events in 12 metropolitan areas. A poll of ARAMARK employees reported 92 percent of participating employees were proud of ARAMARK and its community commitment, and 90 percent stated that they would be interested in participating in ARAMARK Building Community again, both positive indicators that the initiative was generating a greater sense of loyalty and belonging among employees.

A true sign of success at ARAMARK is when the employees adopt a program as their own.  Already, employees immediately began taking their own initiative and find new ways within the umbrella program to engage with their local community centers. They conducted more than 20 food and clothing drives, joined local boards of directors, encouraged others across the company to participate, and built lasting relationships with their neighborhood partners. 

The program generated the internal enthusiasm the company was looking for, and other regions and employee groups began asking when and how they could get involved.  ARAMARK's legion of dietitians and culinary experts, 750 people strong, took the lead in developing turnkey activities and materials to be used at health and wellness events.  Models for healthy cooking demonstrations and tastings, along with recipes and brochures on a wide range of nutrition topics, were created and shared throughout the company.  Teams of these dietitians worked with the community centers to develop local nutrition programs.

Andrew Kerin, President ARAMARK North America Food, Hospitality and Facility Services, felt the enthusiasm from employees and saw the impact first hand.  "Everywhere I go," he said, "employees approach me to say this is a great program.  What a wonderful way for employees – and even external stakeholders – to learn about who we are and what we do."

We were also pleased with the progress made on ARAMARK's business goal to increase awareness among local opinion leaders. We invited local business leaders, officials, current clients and potential clients to work alongside us at ARAMARK Building Community events. Their response was very positive, including the receipt of several and commendations from mayors and other elected officials.  Local press coverage was also strong, recognizing the work of our employees and the critical role community centers play. 

Perhaps most importantly, through ARAMARK Building Community we began to realize our goal of increasing the capacity of local community centers to help people of all generations learn, earn, and thrive.  In the first year alone, nearly half a million individuals served by 20 community centers in 12 cities were directly affected by the work of ARAMARK Building Community.

Looking Ahead

Based on this level of early success, we have begun developing longer-term goals for ARAMARK Building Community.  One is to expand internationally, beyond the 25 planned U.S. markets.  This will bring a host of new cultural challenges and opportunities that I am looking forward to.

We are confident that ARAMARK Building Community will become a powerful program for our company and our communities.  We are starting to bring together people and organizations from all sectors of society – other companies, non-profits, and government agencies, to make real change in the lives of our neighbors served by community centers.  We have just begun to harness the power of connections. 

We invite other companies and institutions to join us in strengthening the capacity of one of our most valuable local resources – community centers. Please contact me if you would like to participate.

Bev Dribin is the Vice President Community Relations for ARAMARK